Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Lake Of Ancient Singing Fire

The peaceful lake among the houses glows
with sunset fire from giant floating cloud
shaped like a woman tending apple trees,
and insects, called by people long ago
as twilight fairies, dance upon its sheen
in rapid spirals, swirling without end.

I walk along a narrow path in woods
and pause in tranquil grove of whispering oaks
to watch the feathered tribe, who lived and died
a thousand years ago, dance on my grave,
and hail the woman bearing in her hands
a woven basket heaped with corn and squash.

I clutch my heart and feel its throbbing beat
gush fountains of blood down my heaving chest,
then stumble into quiet grove of trees
and sit alone on ancient rock of dreams
to stare at ghosts of long-lost carefree tribe
dance to drumbeat on shore of trickling stream.

Though I was born and raised in city streets,
and lived all my life in apartment room
while my parents worked hard at honest jobs,
I joined the mob to drive a liquor truck
from Georgia to Brooklyn once every week,
to earn enough to buy a sprawling ranch.

Though I will never know who plugged a slug
straight through my back, I found sweet paradise
by nameless lake of ancient singing fire
in Georgia woods, alone on summer eve
when all the wild children play hide and seek,
and crickets sing ambitious men to sleep.

Did my father, who walked from Russia woods
and sail from Amsterdam to New York town,
seeking a better life for me to lead,
want me to slave in clanking factories
to earn enough to feed my starving kids,
and would he cry if he could see me die?

At least I found this quiet paradise
beside tranquil lake that glows red with blood,
and I transform into a tortoise elf
who leaps on laughing wings through grove of trees
where fairies throw apples at passing cars,
and I will play a harp on puffy clouds.

I see her running in a yellow dress,
my little daughter who is never born,
and though I long to follow her in play
I stare down long into the deep abyss
until the angel of death stares at me,
and fall in lake of ancient singing fire.

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About Me

I am a cartographer, geospatial analyst, and terrain developer by day, and epic poet by night.

I am writing an epic poem in blank verse titled Hermead about scientists and inventors of civilization. This bible for atheists and scientists is now 120,000 lines of blank verse covering the lives of 25 Greek philosophers.

I posted about 200 songs I wrote and composed at http://youtube.com/surazeus but do not expect anything more than amateur fun folk singing.

I was born in Oregon in the Year of the Beatles, grew up in Texas in the 1970s, went to high school and college in Takoma (Washington state) in the 1980s. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts in 1988 at Washington State University. After living in Seattle for a few years, I hitchhiked around the country playing grunge folk in the 1990s.

I got a job as web designer at State of Michigan 1999-2004, then earned a Master of Science in Geographic Information Science 2005-8 at Michigan State University.

I have since lived in North Carolina and now in Georgia working as a cartographer. Where will I go next on the journey of life? My goal is to become a Professor of Literature at Harvard, which was founded by my ancestor, Thomas Dudley.

I married an Indonesian Muslim woman from Java Island and we have two cute daughters I named for goddesses of wisdom -- Saraswati and Athena.

I am generally a Gnostic Humanist. I do not know if there is a God or not, but the gods of history were humans who had a large influence on their times. What is most important is that I know myself and understand my perceptions, and recreate them in verse.

I am descended 13 generations from the Puritan Poet Anne Bradstreet. Her father, Thomas Dudley, signed the charter to found Harvard, and was descended from the Sutton-Dudley clan of Elizabethan England, who were descended from Joan of Acre, daughter of King Edward I and Eleanor of Castile.

My religion is Astarism.

Astarism honors First Mother Astara Ishtar Athena.

Ishtar sent Abraham and Sarah west and they founded Assurism, Olympism, Apollonism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sufism, and all their branches and offshoots.

Ishtar sent Brahma and Saraswati east and they founded Hinduism, Vaishnism, Shaivism, Buddhism, Krishnaism, Sikhism, and all their branches and offshoots.